


Royal's News

by JGluum



Series: Tales from The Twilight Saga Revamped [1]
Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 05:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13357491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JGluum/pseuds/JGluum
Summary: While Edward is in his self-imposed exile, he receives a call from his brother, Royal, with some shocking news about Beau Swan.This Tale from the Twilight Saga Revamped takes place during New Moon and is told from Edward's perspective.





	Royal's News

The phone in my pocket vibrated again. It was the twenty-fifth time in twenty-four hours. I thought about opening the phone, at least seeing who was trying to contact me. Perhaps it was important. Maybe Carlisle needed me.

I thought about it, but I did not move.

I wasn’t precisely sure where I was. Some dark attic crawl space, full of rats and spiders. The spirders ignored me, and the rats gave me a wide berth. The air was thick with the heavy scents of cooking oil, rancid meat, human sweat, and the nearly solid layer of pollution that was actually visible in the humid air, like a black film over everything. Below me, four stories of a rickety ghetto tenement teamed with life. I didn’t bother to separate the thoughts from the voices—they made a big, loud Spanish clamor that I didn’t listen to. I just let the sounds bounce off me. Meaningless. All of it was meaningless. My very existence was meaningless.

The whole world was meaningless.

My forehead pressed against my knees, and I wondered how much longer I would be able to stand this. Maybe it was hopeless. Maybe, if my attempt was doomed to failure anyway, I should stop torturing myself and just go back…

The idea was so powerful, so _healing_ —like the words contained a strong anesthetic, washing away the mountain of pain I was buried under—that made me gasp, made me dizzy.

I could leave now, I could go back.

Beau’s face, always behind the lids of my eyes, smiled at me.

It was a smile of welcome, of forgiveness, but it did not have the affect my subconscious probably intended it to have.

Of course I could not go back. What was my pain, after all, in comparison to his happiness? He _should_ be able to smile, free from fear and danger. Free from a soulless future. He deserved better than that. He deserved better than me. When he left this world, he would go to a place that was forever barred to me, no matter how I conducted myself here.

The idea of that final separation was so much more intense than the pain I already had. My body shook with it. When Beau went on to the place where he belonged and I never could, I would not linger here behind. There must be oblivion. There must be relief.

That was my hope, but there were no guarantees. _To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub_ , I quoted to myself. Even when I was ash, would I somehow still feel the torture of his loss?

I shuddered again.

And, damn it, I’d promised. I’d promised him that I wouldn’t haunt his life again, bring my black demons into it. I wasn’t going back on my word. Couldn’t I do anything right by him? Anything at all?

The idea of returning to the cloudy little town that would always be my true home on this planet snaked through my thoughts again.

Just to check. Just to see what he’s well and safe and happy. Not to interfere. He would never know I was there…

No. Damn it, no.

The phone vibrated again.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it,” I growled.

I could use the distraction, I supposed. I glanced at the screen and registered the numbers with the first shock I’d felt in half a year.

Why would Royal be calling me? He was the only person who was probably enjoying my absence.

There must be something truly wrong if he needed to talk to me. Suddenly worried for my family, I hit the accept button.

“What?” I asked tensely.

“Oh, wow. Edward answered the phone. I feel so honored.”

As soon as I heard his tone, I knew my family was fine. He must just be bored. It was hard to guess his motives without his thoughts as a guide. Royal had never made much sense to me. His impulses were usually founded on the most convoluted kinds of logic.

I hung up the phone.

“Leave me alone,” I whispered to nobody.

Of course the phone vibrated again at once.

Would he keep calling until he passed along whatever message he was planning to annoy me with? Probably. It would take months for him to grow tired of this game. I toyed with the idea of letting him hit redial for the next half year… and then sighed and answered the phone again.

“Get on with it.”

Royal rushed through the words. “I thought you would want to know that Alice is in Forks.”

I opened my eyes and stared at the rotten wooden beams three inches from my face.

“What?” My voice was flat, emotionless.

“You know how Alice is—thinks she knows everything. Like you.” Royal chuckled humorlessly. His voice had a nervous edge, like he was suddenly unsure about what he was doing.

But the rage made it hard to care what Royal’s problem was.

Alice had sworn to me that she would follow my lead in regard to Beau, though she did not agree with my decision. She’d promised that she would let Beau alone… for as long as I did. Clearly, she’d thought I would eventually fold to the pain. Maybe she was right about that.

But I hadn’t. Yet. So what was she doing in Forks? I wanted to wring her little neck. Not that Jasper would let me get that close to her, once he caught a whiff of the fury blowing out of me…

“Are you still there, Edward?”

I didn’t answer. I pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingertips, wondering if it were possible for a vampire to get a migraine.

On the other hand, if Alice had already gone back…

No. No. No. No.

I’d made a promise. Beau deserved a life. I’d made a promise. Beau deserved a life.

I repeated the words like a mantra, trying to clear my head of the seductive image of Beau, standing at his window waiting for me. My only sanctuary.

No doubt I would have to grovel, were I to return. I didn’t mind that. I could happily spend the next decade on my knees if I were with him.

No, no, no.

“Edward? Don’t you even care why Alice is there?”

“Not particularly.”

Royal’s voice turned a trifle smug now, pleased, no doubt, that he’d forced a response from me. “Well, of course, she’s not exactly breaking the rules. I mean, you only warned us to stay away from Beau, right? The rest of Forks doesn’t matter.”

I blinked my eyes slowly. Beau had left? My thoughts circled around the unexpected idea. He hadn’t graduated yet, so he must have returned to his mother. That was good. He could live in sunshine. It was good that he’d been able to put the shadows behind him.

I tried to swallow, and I couldn’t.

Royal let out a nervous laugh. “So you don’t need to be angry with Alice.”

“Then why did you call me, Royal, if not to get Alice in trouble? Why are you bothering me? Ugh!”

“Wait!” he said, sensing, rightly, that I was about to hang up again. “That’s not why I called.”

“Then why? Tell me quickly, and then _leave me alone_.”

“Well…” he hesitated.

“Spit it out, Royal. You have ten seconds.”

“I think you should come home,” Royal said in a rush. “I’m tired of Esme grieving and Carlisle never laughing. You should feel ashamed at what you’ve done to them. Emmett misses you all the time and it’s getting on my nerves. You have a family. Grow up and think about something besides yourself.”

“Interesting advice, Royal. Let me tell you a little story about a pot and a kettle…”

“I _am_ thinking about them, Edward, unlike you. Don’t you care how much you’ve hurt Esme, if no one else? She loves you more than the rest of us, and you know that. Come home.”

I didn’t answer.

“I thought once this whole Forks thing was finished, you would get over it.”

“Forks was never the problem, Royal,” I said, trying to be patient. What he’d said about Esme and Carlisle had struck a chord. “Just because Beau”—it was hard to say his name out loud—“has moved to Florida, it doesn’t mean that I’m able… Look, Royal. I really am sorry, but, trust me, it wouldn’t make anyone happier if I were there.”

“Um…”

There it was, that nervous hesitation again.

“What is it that you’re not telling me, Royal? Is Esme all right? Is Carlisle—“

“They’re fine. It’s just… well, I didn’t say that Beau _moved_.”

I didn’t speak. I ran over our conversation in my head. Yes, Royal _had_ said that Beau had moved. He’d said, _…you only warned us to stay away from Beau, right? The rest of Forks doesn’t matter._ And then, _I thought once this whole Forks thing was finished_ … So Beau wasn’t in Forks. What did Royal mean, Beau hadn’t moved?

Then Royal was rushing through his words again, saying them almost angrily this time.

“They didn’t want to tell you, but I think that’s stupid. The quicker you get over this, the sooner things can go back to normal. Why let you mope around the dark corners of the world when there’s no need for it? You can come home now. We can be a family again. It’s over.”

My mind seemed to be broken. I couldn’t make sense of his words. It was like there was something very, very obvious he was telling me, but I had no idea what it was. My brain played with the information, making strange patterns of it. Nonsensical.

“Edward?”

“I don’t understand what you are saying, Royal?”

A long pause, the length of a few human heartbeats.

“He’s dead, Edward.”

A longer pause.

“I’m… sorry. You have a right to know, though, I think. Beau… threw himself off a cliff two days ago. Alice saw it, but it was too late to do anything. I think she would have helped, though, broken her word if there had been time. She went back to do what she could for Charlie. You know she’s always cared for him—“

The phone went dead. It took me a few seconds to realize that I’d hung up.

I sat in the dusty darkness for a long, frozen space. It was like time had ended. Like the universe had stopped.

Slowly, moving like an old man, I opened my phone and dialed the one number I’d promised myself I would never call again.

If it was Beau, I would hang up. If it was Charlie, I’d get the information I needed through subterfuge. I’d prove Royal’s sick little joke wrong, and then go back to my nothingness.

“Swan residence,” answered a voice I’d never heard before. A man’s husky voice, deep, but still youthful.

I didn’t pause to think about the implications of that.

“This is Dr. Carlisle Cullen,” I said, perfectly imitating my father’s voice. “May I please speak to Charlie?”

“He’s not here,” the voice responded, and I was dimly surprised by the anger in it. The words were almost a snarl. But that didn’t matter.

“Well, where is he then?” I demanded, getting impatient.

There was a short pause, as if the stranger wanted to withhold the information from me.

“He’s at the funeral,” the voice finaly answered.

I felt the phone crack in my hand.


End file.
